8/22/2004 » Musings

A guest editorial in the New York Times a few months ago humorously bemoaned the lack of desis in sci-fi films (via Amardeep Singh):

Take the "Star Wars," "Matrix," and "Star Trek" movies — well over a dozen films — and you'll work hard to find five Indians. One is blue (Ayesha Dharkar in "Star Wars: Episode II — The Attack of the Clones"), one is bald (Persis Khambatta in the first "Star Trek" movie), one dies in five minutes (Vijay Amritraj in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"), and two are adorable child actors ("Star Wars: Episode II" and "The Matrix Revolutions").

Perhaps the author missed the apocryphal story about Gene Roddenberry modeling Klingons on Sikhs and Ferengis on one of the desi mercantile castes. ‘Ferengi’ is even from the Hindi word for ‘foreigner.’

Given the number of desi engineers, you’d think the Trekkie quotient would be through the roof, but desis have never been strong with knowing campiness. Irony is the forte of post-materialist, post-sexual revolution societies. These are cultures with harshly aspirated consonants where the treacly love-love sentiments of Bollywood songs are sneered at, where The Sound of Music has long since mutated from ‘Sixteen Going on Seventeen’ to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. No irony on empty bellies.

Unintentionally camp, now, that’s different: guys with bad haircuts and thick plastic civil service specs; aging, tubby icons romancing young lovelies; Indian Superman. The legion of desi camp could overrun a big tent party and still leave badly-shirted henchmen mewling at the gates.

But hark! look yonder at the lightening sky. Hope arises anew with this fabulous Indian Coke parody ad (via Boing Boing):

It features one of the hottest young actors in Bollywood, Vivek Oberoi, and features many in-jokes to ’70s Bollywood films (note, especially, the lightbulb dress in the 3rd segment, a direct lift from a classic ’70s movie).

Wakao!